Windmills of My Mind

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Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Ahaadees (or, if you are obsessed, Ahaadeeth) …

The Qur'an, or the part of it I read as a child, was in Arabic. Occasionally I was given an Urdu Translation under the Qur'anic verses. I even got one that had a Direct Translation in Urdu under it and a Meaningful Translation in Urdu under that.

I understood little, if any, of its meaning or what it desired of Muslims. The force was to read the Arabic and I paid very little time to the Urdu version. This is the way that most of us read it as children. It was much later, as a grown up, that I read it - fully - in my 'religious reading period', whilst I was at sea and had the time to think about all religions and their counterparts. I read several English and Urdu versions of the meanings of the Qur'an. These included Deobandi, Barelvi, Shia, Ahmadi. In English I read Pickthall (who converted from Catholicism to Islam in 1917) and Abdullah Yusuf Ali (a Dawoodi Bohra). The latter version is the one that is given by Saudi Arabia now to guests. I'd also read many others by people who were not Muslims (e.g. Arberry).

You might want to know why did I have a 'religious reading period' at all. Part of it was my interest in Religion itself, as a subject, but a lot if it was my love of reading of Western or Eastern prose and poetry. Many of these contained references to historical figures based on numerous religions, a lot of them from the past and some from the more recent present. I had to understand these references to fully enjoy reading all the works that I did. Apart from religious works I also read Plutarch's Lives and other old books that spoke of the great men who followed these gods.

Having decided that the best way to read it would be, preferably, in a chronological order … so that I understood how the human mind evolved and how their ways of belief helped them do so … I started carrying several books to the ships with me.

(The sea was the best period of my life, I am sure, giving me time to read, listen to music, watch plays, meet people from all parts of the world, talk to people who would just have been part of my dreams were I not sailing to their ports. O' how I miss it!)

Except a few, almost all people I met remained into the Islamic Deen or other religions into which they were born, with families and environments playing the major role. However, I also found that many of these beliefs (and disbeliefs) turned people into Polytheists, non-Theists (like the Buddhists), Deists, Monotheists, and even Agnostics, Atheists, and anti-Theists.

Reading most religious books, as far as it was possible, in the order that they were sent to us by a God, or were written by humans (inspired by God), I finally reached Islamic Studies that included the Qur'an, Sunnah, and Hadees (often spelt as Hadith or Hadeeth).

Ziauddin Kirmani's wonderful book, The Last Messenger with a Lasting Message, has this to say: "… we should not confuse the word Sunnah – the way the Prophet would act in a particular situation or, in other words, his line of action – with what we call Hadeeth (Tradition), that is, a reported incident from the life of the Prophet."

Sunnah is what the Prophet of Islam did, like saying his prayers. For example, he prayed slightly differently at times and we have groups of Muslims who pray with their hands folded at the stomach, above the stomach, and some in between these extremes. There are some who in prayers, like him, recite a verse loudly, while others think, also from seeing him, that it should be said very softly. None of these makes them non-Muslims at all … but they are set apart as the followers of certain Taqleeds.

Hadees, written by people several years after the Prophet's passing away (we are told that the Prophet did not want them written down so that people don't consider it to be the equal of Qur'an) actually were stories about what he said (or supposedly did say), as narrated by one person to someone else to someone else to someone else …

The Hadees, to be considered True - in this game of Chinese (/Arabian) Whispers - had to come through people known to 'speak the Truth'. Rather difficult, actually, when you look at generations that had passed, but (strangely!) acceptable to the ones who spent their lives writing these hadeeses down.

We now have several books, like Bukhari, Muslim (Bukhari's student), and four others, from the Sunnis. This whole collection is called Kütüb Al-Sittah. Most Sunni Muslims who strictly follow the Ahaadees (although there are some Muslims who do not) believe that Sahih al-Bukhari is the most important book after the Qur'an.

Muhammad ibn Ya‘qub ibn Ishaq al-Kulayni al-Razi al-Baghdadi was from a noble family of Kulayn, near a city called Ray. He was buried in Baghdad near Bab al-Kufa in 981 C.E. His compilation of Ahaadees is known as Al-Kafi that all Shias read. It is a collection that is considered priceless by its own followers. A preface of the translation (Muhammad Sarwar, 1999) states that "Al-Kafi is not a book independent of the Holy Quran. This volume simply provides beautiful details of the above matters as they are mentioned in various passages and verses of the Holy Quran."

(I am rather surprised that, of late, many Shias, including a couple of close friends of mine, don't think that all of Al Kafi is necessarily true.)

•••••

Having been brought up to believe in the Qur'an and Sunnah, I also read a lot of Bukhari and Al-Kafi (and, very occasionally, Muslim) for purely historical interest … not counting them to be part of my belief system as something I 'must' follow. Now, with Internet, most of us who have access can read all these books online or download them (and hundreds of thousands do so). They read this and use it … but without even still bothering to read the Qur'an and its meaning in their own languages.

Always sounds peculiar to me, this attitude! I can have discussions with people over something today and, very rarely, do I find the person quoting a verse for or against my thinking ... but, much more frequently, I am told that their view is supported by a Hadees. This even happens sometimes when that particular Hadees is almost against the Qur'anic teachings.

•••••

Sahih Bukhari, a collection of 2602 Hadeeses collected in 16 years by Abū ‘Abd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Ismā‘īl ibn Ibrāhīm ibn al-Mughīrah ibn Bardizbah al-Ju‘fī al-Bukhārī (194 - 256 AH / 810 - 870 AD), is among the most popular websites that I visit often. I was astonished that the Preface said Hadees and Sunnahwere the same thing. Many Muslims have a concept, now, that these two are the same. Pity!

Among the collection of Bukhari's 'Sahih Ahadees' are nine books and the first book has Menses as its Chapter Six. Surely there must be more important things that we must follow, but these important things have been dealt with in later books/chapters.

I used to always wonder how, after being told to behave morally, the Prophet's widows — women whom the Muslims consider their Mothers (Ümm-ül-Momineen) — spoke to several random people about the Prophet's attitude towards Menses. I guess things were more tolerant then. Specially in Arabia. In my growing up in the subcontinent - and until very recently - none of the men and women talked about this, ever. Most of them still don't.

Some ahaadees really seem fantastic. Take this, as an example:

"Narrated Abu Huraira and Zaid bin Khalid: 'Umar Ibn al Khataab said "Allah sent Muhammad with the Truth and revealed the Holy Book, Quran, to him, and among what Allah revealed, was the Ayah of the Rajam (the stoning of married person - male & female) who commits illegal sexual intercourse, and we did recite this ayah and understood and memorized it." (Bukhari: Volume 8, Book 82, Number 815)”

The Sahih Bukhari Ahaadees states that certain verses of the Quran were taken away. Then it quotes their gist and also tell us when or why this happened. Isn't it odd that people would remember these verses after three generations? Specially after God had made us forget them!

•••••

A few of them are also about Hazrat Ali, or some other holy person, in which the Prophet is mentioned. Is this a Hadees? Here's one of them. What do you think?

"Abu al-Nu‘man Muhammad ibn al-Fadl related to us: Hammad ibn Zayd related to us from Ayyub from ‘‘Ikrimah who said: “Some Zanadiqah were brought to ‘Ali and he burnt them. This reached Ibn ‘Abbas and he said: I would not have burnt them because of the prohibition by the Messenger of God: ‘Do not punish with the punishment of God.’ I would have killed them in accordance with the word of the Messenger of God: ‘Whoever changed his religion kill him’.” (Bukhari Vol. 9 Book 84 No. 57)"

Incidentally this is one of the Ahaadees that's quoted when Muslims want to kill an Atheist … or even someone who has changed from Islam to become a member of those that are considered Ahlé Kitaab.

•••••

Allaama Kulaini's Al-Kafi ook 20 years to be compiled. Among it's numerous volumes it has stories of the pre-Creation, the Prophet, his Ahlé Baét, the Imaams, and other religious matters. Apart from the fact that many Sunni Muslims don't agree with Al-Kafi, the book also has the following tale (and many similar ones, actually) …

Muhammad ibn Yahya has narrated from Sa‘d ibn ‘Abdallah from Ibrahim ibn Muhammad al- Thaqafi from Ali ibn Mu‘alla from his brother, Muhammad from Durust ibn abu Mansur from Ali ibn abu Hamza from abu Basir from abu ‘Abdallah (a.s.) who has said the following. "When the Holy Prophet (s.a) was born he remained for days without milk. Abu Talib himself breast fed him and Allah sent milk through his nipples. It continued for several days until abu Talib found Halima al-Sa‘diya and the child was given to her" — H , Ch. 111, h 27

One has to believe in the supersupernatural to understand that God works in Mysterious Ways and He did not think it would be wise to give the Prophet's mother some milk but Decided to alter a male into being a kind of heterosexual.

•••••

I must state, though, that it is not just Ahaadees that are filled with Zaeef and Unacceptable versions. This madness is also part of the history which is altered profusely when people teach their children about their past. Here's one example:

Allama ibn Jawzi writes: That when Adam (May Allah bless him and grant Him peace) was being created, the noor of Prophet [May Allah bless him and grant Him peace] was placed in Adam [May Allah bless him and grant Him peace]’s forehead and Adam [May Allah bless him and grant Him peace] saw Prophet [May Allah bless him and grant Him peace], Adam [May Allah bless him and grant Him peace] asked “who is he?” Allah Ta’ala replied “He is the last Prophet and will be the chief of your children.”(Al Wafa chapter on Birth of Prophet [May Allah bless him and grant Him peace] by Ibn Jawzi).

No, this is not Oyster Soup. It's my removed gallbladder!(Thanks for the picture, Nuzhat.)

In Laproscopy they just cut holes in the tummy and remove it.

Here are my 9 stones.

Here's a close-up of the biggest one I had.

The hospital, which looks like a 5-Star Hotel, was clean. No strange smells. A food courtyard! Surgeon Dr Maher, Anaesthesiologist Dr Jakhrani, various RMOs, and the smart Registered Nurses were all polite.

As far as the Nurse Assistants were concerned - polite that they too were - I was taken aback, when I was feeling less groggy, that the three of them were standing around me and one was touching my left-bottom of the tummy. I had though the surgery was going to be on the right side, so I asked what thy were looking at. The oldest person said, "We are just looking for your Pacemaker. It must be small." I told him that the Pacemaker was large and was under my left shoulder. They uncovered me and saw it and I heard an "Uff" sound. Wish they had been trained to know where Pacemakers are fitted.

Sunday, October 05, 2014

5th October 2011

The phone rang early one morning and I heard Ragni say,

"Have you heard about Steve?"

Steve Jobs was dead.

I have spent years with Steve Jobs & Apple. One of my first computers was the Apple II which I bought within days of it hitting the market. I had migrated to the Mac as soon as that marvel appeared … added every new model for years until I finally settled on the new iMac, possibly because of my age. The iPod, the iPhone, the iPad, and the ATV are all over my den. Yes. I will be with Apple as long as it — or I — live.

A major part of Steve's Presentations (popularly know as SteveNotes) was that almost each one was a gem, as was his "… And there's one more thing" ending. Can't remember all of them, but here are some of the many things Steve Gods-er-Sorry-Jobs offered after that sentence:

Apple's return to profitability at MacWorld Expo San Francisco 1998

iMac in colors at MacWorld San Francisco 1999

22-inch Apple Cinema Display at Seybold 1999

AirPort base station and card after iBook introduction at MacWorld Expo New York 1999

iMac DV, iMovie, and iMac DV special edition, October 1999

At MacWorld SF 2000, Aqua was introduced. Jobs announced that he would continue at Apple permanently, dropping the "i" (for "interim") from "iCEO"

Power Mac G4 Cube at MacWorld NY 2000

PowerBook G4 at MacWorld San Francisco 2001

17-inch iMac G4 at MacWorld New York 2002

Power Mac G5 at WWDC 2003

12-inch Aluminum PowerBook G4 at MacWorld 2003

iPod Mini at MacWorld 2004

iPod Shuffle at MacWorld 2005

Fifth-generation iPod with video, announced at a press conference entitled "One more thing..."

MacBook Pro at Macworld Expo 2006

Movie sales at the iTunes Store in September 2006; a second "One more thing..." in the same presentation unveiled iTV (renamed Apple TV at Macworld 2007)

Safari for Windows beta at WWDC 2007

Aluminum Unibody MacBook, October 2008

Video camera and speaker in fifth-generation iPod Nano at the Apple Music Event in September 2009

FaceTime video calling for the iPhone 4 at WWDC 2010

Second-generation Apple TV running on iOS at the September 2010 Apple Music Event

Revised MacBook Air at a press event, "Back to the Mac", in October 2010

Wednesday, October 01, 2014

How Little We Know …

OK family and friends. Here's another day.

My Gall Stones

My brother-in-law, Tariq Husain, is generally worried about everyone's health (except, perhaps, his own!) and at every person's slightest problems he will always jump in and try to help. I am grateful for his over-enthusiasm because it sometimes sticks.

Of course, I get that help from him, too, often despite my protests. Now that I had refused my surgery at NMC after a near disaster, Tariq called from his Haj Trip and said I should look for a second opinion, possibly from Dr Saad Khalid Niaz. Although I believe that a 'friendly doctor' didn't think much of him, Nuzhat got an appointment for yesterday and off we went with all my papers.

Dr Niaz spoke to me and enquired why there had been no Ultrasound even on my first trip at NMC. He said it was a good hospital and he was surprised. Then I showed him the Ultrasound taken at Shamim's insistence and he said fine, you have gall stones and a surgery is necessary. No other treatment, he thought, would work. This is what Shamim had also said, earlier.

I showed him my other papers and explained the process that left me refusing surgery at NMC and all he did was laugh. He said the Anaesthetist was strange. Also there was no need for an Open Surgery and I should have a Laparoscopy, instead. He suggested an Anaesthetist, Dr Jakharani (whom he thought was one of the best here), phoned him up after I agreed, and got me an appointment in half an hour. So off we rushed to see him at another hospital.

Dr Jakharani - an oldish man - saw me, spent some time with me, advised me, and said that Laparoscopy was the right answer. No need to do an open surgery. He said Dr Zia Yaqoob, at NMC, was right in saying I could have it. But he thought I should speak to Dr Maher Mumtaz, the surgeon who'd perform the operation.

Dr Mumtaz was Dr Shamim's first preference, but because I had had 3 surgeries (Hernia, Quadruple Bypass, Pacemaker) at NMC — which is also only 5 minutes away from my house — he also suggested two Professors he knew there, and I chose them.

I now know that the senior of the Professors had been 'trained' by Dr Maher Mumtaz who pioneered Laparoscopy in Pakistan.

Just a few minutes wait and Dr Mumtaz came in. An even older man than Dr Jakharani, he was very good during his conversation. He checked me out. Saw the Ultrasound and said Laparoscopy is the only answer.

When I said I had a right to refuse the NMC surgery, he said:

You have had a Bypass – so your heart is working

You have a Pacemaker — which means it's keeping the rate right

Both things make you better than the average patient

The Anaesthetist would have had to give you the anaesthesia either way, so what was he worried about

Let's not talk about what happened at NMC. Let's just move on

Keep this stupid old report of Hepatitis B out. It might cause a mistake. Just keep the right ones in your folder

There is no need for an open surgery at all!!!

I should sleep over the right side of my body and not the left … as that could cause the stones to go near the entrance and block it or hurt me a lot.

Dr Jakharani & Dr Mumtaz, both, said they have treated octogenarians and yesterday they did a Laparoscopy on a Doctor who is retired and is 92 years old.

The answer, then, is that if I have to have Surgery, I'll have to go to Dr Mumtaz's assistant after Baqr Eed. Give him my ECG, X-Ray, Ultrasound and anything else he wants. Keep off Loprin for 5 days. And then we can do the operation. Shamim came back last night. I've discussed this with him. He says that's the right way to go since my Gall Bladder is no use now.

•••••

All of this seems good, except my faith in Doctors here has shaken. My father was a Doctor of the good old stock. If necessary, he asked for a second opinion or brought another doctor in on the case. He always had extremely good bedside manners. He loved his work! Today, Shamim is also like that. Of course, neither of them made money here!

words of wisdom

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.
I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy - ecstasy so great that I would often have scrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness - that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that the saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought and, though it might seem too good for human life, this is what - at last - I have found.
With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.
Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.
This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.Bertrand Russell

The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum - even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.Noam Chomsky

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.Albert Einstein

Each century seems to take on a particular character as we view it in retrospect. How will the 20th Century be remembered? My guess is that this dramatic span of 100 years will ultimately be marked not by computers or the Internet, but by the drive toward individual freedom, the breaking of human barriers of prejudice, and the opening of society to include all people.John S. Spong

DESIDERATA
Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.Max Ehrmann